Hey Rocky, thanks for sharing the article and interesting observations.

I am not really following the speculation about next-gen consoles - I'll just wait until they announce the final specs whenever they decide to ...

But a few observations:

1. The fact is consoles will never keep up with higher-end gaming PCs in terms of raw pixel pumping power. MS and Sony need to lock down the final GPUs at least a year before the platform releases, so it will always be behind. That happened with the current-gen 360 and PS3

2. I think after getting absolutely trounced by the Wii this-gen, Sony and MS likely have realized that best graphics does not equal best games. After the initial fiasco of the over-ambitious original PS3 and over-heating red ring of death 360's (both which made MS and Sonly lose millions $$), they are likely learning a lesson from Nintendo to come out with a cheaper and cooler-running console that hopefully can still deliver a great gaming experience, while not necessarily top-end graphics

3. I think it is smart for new-gen consoles to use an APU (i.e. combined CPU/GPU chip like AMD's Fusion) to run low-end downloadable casual games, and only have a discrete seperate GPU kick-in for higher end games. This will let the console run cooler and less wear/tear in the long-run.

In fact, the current-gen MacBook Pros are already doing this with an Intel second-generation i-series (Sandy-Bridge) GPU-in-CPU running desktop graphics and a discrete AMD Radeon chip only kicking in during higher-end gaming.

I guessI am just diapointed because I was a die hard PC gamer, that kind of reluctantly moved to consoles, then I started to enjoy console gaming, now I get the feeling the next gen consoles are going to leave me wanting to go back to PC to get some decent eye candy.